“The electric things have their lives, too. Paltry as those lives are.” (191) As a science-fiction novel, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? tackles the battle of what constitutes life through the allegories and social-indicators of androids, the humans and “specials” remaining on Earth, and the weight of an electric animal versus a real […]
One of the first things that struck me was the importance of animals within the novel. In the first chapter, as Rick reveals his sheep is in fact a fraud, he explains,”You know how people are about not taking care of an animal; they consider it immoral and anti-empathic. I mean, technically it’s not a […]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel published in 1968 by Philip K. Dick. It’s the story of a man named Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who lives in a dystopian San Francisco after most of the human population has relocated themselves to Mars due to the extensive damages to Earth […]
We’re introduced to the Invisible man at the start of the novel as a figure who struggles with the worlds view on him. In his mind, the world has turned his existence into a meaningless venture. “You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you’re apart […]
Lost in thought while walking down the street, the narrator is struck by the scent of yams, which he explains reminds him of home. This I find to be a pivotal scene of the novel, transporting us from our typical narrative scenario and instead focusing in on the narrator’s senses and what that means for […]
KEEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS Chapter 10 begins with the narrator’s new job at Liberty Paints, a paint factory specializing in a characteristic white paint. Color serves as a thinly-veiled criticism of the white dominance defining the United States at the time. Purity is a recurring theme in Invisible Man. By reading this slogan, […]
In the 6th chapter of the novel, Dr. Bledsoe scolds the narrator for driving Mr. Norton to the slums (141-143). These pages and the exchange between the two characters stood out to me. For me it provided a glimpse into the realities of a minority gaining power in that era and then doing whatever he […]
In class on Tuesday, we discussed David’s portrayal of the other characters in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. I believe that we came to a consensus that David isn’t particularly nice or kind to a lot of the characters. He spends a lot of time with Jacques, but he doesn’t really see him as someone important to him. […]
In the very first few pages we, the readers are introduced to Giovanni, but only through the narrator. We are only informed of his presence through the mystical and erotic hold he has over the narrator. Immediately we want to know more and we don’t have to wait long. In the second chapter Jaques and […]
David, after his tryst with Joey, is determined to appear as not gay as possible, even going so far as to bully his friend Joey. His relationship with Jacques is not dissimilar. He seems to detest Jacques outwardly expressed and near-shameless homosexuality. However, he tolerates it for his own benefit: he looks to Jacques for […]